I'm sure you'll find this amusing...

So here are, from left to right, Kaylee, Fife and Fergus. They're all rescue dogs from an organization called Triangle Sheltie Rescue. We always feel good that we have been able to give these dogs a good home, but seriously, can you imagine abandoning a pet like that in the first place? Fife, in the middle, is probably the most understandable - he was one of about a dozen dogs that an old woman with Alzheimer's was keeping until they were rescued. We were third in line to adopt him, but he snapped at the kids in the two families in front of us so he couldn't go with them. Since we didn't have kids and didn't want 'em, he fit right in with us!

Fergus, who we got a year or so after Fife, was given up by a family that was going through a divorce. Apparently he'd been given to the kid as a puppy - a distraction, I guess? - but soon and I'm sure completely unexpectedly became not a puppy any more, so it was time to get rid of him. Or it could have been his almost literally unquenchable demand for someone to throw a ball for him to fetch. After a while, I can almost understand that one.

We're not sure about Kaylee - she was just turned into the pound after she was found wandering on a road up in the mountains near Asheville. She's the most loving of any of our dogs (this picture of her always reminds me of Fozzie Bear when he's laughing at one of his own jokes) and it's really hard to imagine her lost and alone. We fostered a lot of dogs in Asheville for the rescue group and she was the last one - and the only one who simply wasn't going to leave. How could we say no to that face?

I can't imagine abandoning a pet, but in these cases we're awfully glad somebody did.